The All Academic Conference

This weekend, I took a fun little trip. One of my friends went to Vanderbilt University prior to coming to Rutgers and he still has friends in Nashville so I met him there to enjoy some Music City flavor and watch the Commodores take on Florida. (SIDENOTE – College students...if you are looking for a leg up it looks like the mean age of flight attendants is in the late 50s so there may be a lot of openings there soon.)

The game itself turned out to be a complete bust as Vandy looked like the Rutgers of old and couldn't catch, throw, or not get a punt blocked. The final was 55 – 14, but if Vandy made some plays in the first half, like a 4th and 3 that went right through the hands of a receiver, it would have been a much better game.

One thing I did get a chance to appreciate is the difference between the Florida fans and the Vandy fans. Florida fans seem to be from every demographic, heavily included in that is the mullet demographic, and Vandy fans seem to be more refined in nature. Why wouldn't they be? Vanderbilt is one of the more prestigious universities in the country and it's well known that they cannot recruit the same players as Florida because half of Florida's team would not make it through Vanderbilt admission policies.

And like a truly intelligent school, they focus on what they should be focusing on and use the money the SEC gives them to good use. They know in order to compete in football, they'd have to sacrifice a ton of money for potential little return because football players seem to be from more difficult backgrounds and aren't willing to sacrifice potential NFL success to go to Vandy (like Jay Cutler). So, Vandy has used all that big SEC football money to build a baseball stadium that compares to a minor league stadium and has used the money to improve other facilities in sports they can compete in like basketball. It's much easier to convince a smart baseball player or basketball player to come to Vandy and get a great education, as well as have an opportunity to compete and potentially go pro (ask David Price from the Tampa Bay Rays) than to convince a smart football player to go to Vandy and potentially be that lone wolf.

Anyhow, after thinking for a few minutes, I came up with an idea that could revolutionize college sports, make a TON of money, and cause the Vanderbilts, Rutgers, and Northwesterns of the world to have a conference they could call home. Of course this would be close to a spinoff of the Ivy League Conference, but just schools that have a higher academic standard and want to compete at a high level in sports as well. It may thumb its nose at the NCAA and the big time football schools whose only focus is putting a product on the field and throwing in academics as a secondary item, but everyone deserves a home and to have an opportunity for success.

The idea would be to create the All Academic Conference, or AAC for short. It would be the cream of the FBS academic crop and would have 14 teams that routinely have tried to hold themselves to a higher standard. The idea would be novel because everyone loves an underdog and a lot of these teams are seen as darlings who captivate the nation when they are good. The basis behind the athletic programs would be that the AAC has to hold their student athletes to a higher admissions process and testing process. They wouldn't be able to take the same quality of students as a Florida, but that's a minor sacrifice as many of these schools already hold themselves to a higher standard.

The Conference would look as follows:

East

Rutgers

Boston College

Duke

Army

Navy

Notre Dame

Perdue

West

Stanford

Northwestern

Vanderbilt

Baylor

Air Force

Brigham Young

Cal

I know what you are thinking...why the heck should I believe this could happen? You're right. Why should you believe that?

My answers are more practical than you think. The conference would span the nation and would still be able to keep rivalries by having the teams play those as out of conference games. It really wouldn't affect certain teams in conference as 4 of them are Independent and already perform that scheduling feat annually. Rivalries are always a major concern, but for these teams they shouldn't be.

Scheduling would be 6 games against the other teams in your division, 2 games against teams from the other division, and 4 out of conference games. Of those 4 out of conference games, the schools can select who they'd like to play and if they'd want to even play an FCS opponent. Due to the perception that the conference may be weak, they may not opt to play an FCS team. It would also give them 4 dates to schedule any rivalry games that are out of conference. Likewise, you allow Army, Navy, and Air Force to keep playing. You allow Notre Dame to have their annual match-up with Stanford and Air Force if they want. You allow flexibility in scheduling that these universities would welcome.

You also have a solid demographic of school types in the conference for student athletes to select from. You have 2 Christian schools in Notre Dame and Boston College. You have a school that's by Silicon Valley. You have military academies in the mix. You have 2 southern schools in Vandy and Duke. You have a school in Texas as well. You have a Mormon school on the bill. You have schools in or by big cities and schools that are their own city. You have tradition and excellence in all different types of sports, not just football.

The TV coverage would also be a big issue, but an issue that can be easily met. Since the conference spans the nation, it would be bringing major markets with it. You've got the New York market with Rutgers and Army. You have the Chicago market with Notre Dame and Northwestern. You have the San Francisco market with Stanford and potentially Cal. You also have the Boston market with adding in BC. You have a market in the Charlotte area, one in Indianapolis, one in Nashville, one by Houston, one by Denver, one by Washington, and one by Salt Lake City. You have a huge sales pitch you can make to either create your own station or to get a major station to host your games.

What I would do is I would woo Notre Dame and NBC by telling both the network and the university that they can keep their coverage, as long as they cover other teams on Saturday. Then I would either look at creating my own station or approach the NFL Network for coverage for all other games. The only team in conference that does NOT have an NFL team associated with their local city is Brigham Young. All other teams do have that connection so having the NFL Network pick up a Saturday sports contract to showcase the lesser games in conference would be nearly perfect. If the NFL network feels it's not worth covering, I'd create my own network similar to the Big Ten and sell that to cable companies as a package that goes with the NFL Network.

By including NBC as the main network of coverage, you'll guarantee NBC at least 1 (preferably 2) conference games a week that are the top 2 match-ups to go along with the Notre Dame coverage. You have a noon game on the network and you also have a 7 pm game on the network. Then you can cover both the east and west coast markets at a comfortable part of the day to watch football. Since there are 12 teams in conference, you guarantee your own network or the NFL Network to carry the other games on the slate. NBC would get first right of refusal for all rivalry games like Army/Navy, ND/USC, Vandy/Tennessee, Rutgers/Syracuse, BYU/Utah, Stanford/Cal, and so on. If they do not want to cover the game, it then goes to the other network. This is very similar to how the Big Ten is working right now by having ESPN and CBS covering major games and the Big Ten Network covering other games.

Perhaps the biggest advantage these schools would have would be the monopoly they'd develop on students who are true student athletes that want a quality education and competition. There is a big market for that and if there wasn't we would see these universities competing at the level some do. Every year a few of these schools end up being ranked in the end so those being able to compete and have a automatic bid to the BCS should be a no brainer.

Why would these schools want to leave their conferences and join a conference like this? I think it really evens out the competition to an extent. The main school of reference in this whole deal would be Notre Dame and if you allow them to keep their big time NBC money and their ability to schedule USC annually, they really have less of an argument not to do this. You use their connection to NBC to help NBC become a major player in college sports and to generate tons of revenue for the conference. They already play 4 or more of these schools on a yearly basis. The conference has the ability to generate money, keep rivalries intact, bolsters great academics, bolster great sports programs in every sport (not just football), and they can compete. The real question should be "It's so practical for the teams involved, why not try it?"

Face the facts. When Rutgers played well that year in 2006, the nation was captivated by our success. When Vanderbilt beat Auburn for their first win over a ranked opponent and they were 4-0 in 2008, the nation tuned in as well. When Stanford goes up against USC and is playing well, we want to watch. When Duke is playing well, the nation watches. And when Notre Dame is having a magical season, or a non-magical season, people tune in. While we all enjoy watching the heavyweights duke it out and love being critical over the competition each team plays, we also want to see kids who are smart play each other and go up against those heavyweights.

These teams already have a handicap in who they can admit and it's been well documented how critics of Rutgers football have felt Rutgers has let academics slide to bring in more talented football players. To get into Rutgers as a student is extremely difficult, but the academic critics say we should be bringing in more academically talented students rather than a football player who doesn't have that background. And while Greg Schiano and his staff have done an excellent job at showing the football program is not a liability by finishing routinely in the top 5 in Academic Progress Rate (#1 in 2009), the ethical question of "Do those students who have a lesser academic background, but play football, deserve the opportunity to succeed at Rutgers (as they have been) over a kid from high school with a better resume?"

By creating the All Academic Conference, that question and the criticism behind academics versus athletics are quelled for these 14 schools. They are allowed to compete at a high level and have high level academics. The students of their conference can put on their resume that they were in the All Academic Conference and employers would know that is an accomplishment. The real accomplishment, though, would be some smart individual with power from these schools standing up and saying "Let's give it a shot!"